Name: Henry Paul

Status: Former Classified Unit. Quit under questionable circumstances. Known for tricky border-zone operations and also labeled a traitor. Last seen: disappeared.

Mateo let out a frustrated sigh. "These two again..."

Peter rubbed his jaw, looking concerned. "This is not good."

Sia was still focused on the screen, her expression serious. "Two ex-military ghosts. That makes sense."

They weren’t shocked, just a bit annoyed; these names had shown up in a few underground cases before.

Then, the machine processed the third fingerprint, revealing something unusual—a ghost among ghosts. The device paused for a moment, as if weighing its findings.

Then it displayed:

SCAN COMPLETE, NO MATCH FOUND.

NO FEDERAL RECORD.

NO STATE RECORD.

NO PRIVATE RECORD.

NO FOREIGN DATABASE MATCH.

And then it threw up something alarming:

HINT: POSSIBLE ERASURE TRACE DETECTED.

Sia’s expression turned steely as she took this in. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Sia clicked on the advanced report, excitement bubbling up inside her. Lines of code and analysis zipped across the screen. The machine had picked up tiny digital "scars", those little marks left behind when someone’s identity gets completely wiped.

Not just deleted. Really scrubbed down.

"I knew it..." Sia said quietly.

"A pro erasure," Mateo said, clearly impressed.

George chimed in, "To wipe out a whole digital identity... that’s some top-notch work."

Peter looked concerned. "Whoever this person is... they’re definitely not your average person."

Sia took a deep breath. "This digital fingerprint belongs to someone who doesn’t show up on any official records. Not even in the erased military files."

She hesitated for a moment. "That means one important thing."

Everyone leaned in, eager to hear more. "This person’s identity wasn’t wiped by some agency." She swallowed, feeling the weight of what she was saying. "It was deleted by someone who knew exactly how to stay off their radar."

After a while, Leo woke up in his office, the first thing on his mind being the fingerprint results. He could hear footsteps heading toward the lab, steady and controlled. Leo had a way of moving that suggested he was no stranger to secrets, quiet, precise, and yet he carried an undeniable presence.

He walked into the lab, his eyes half-open and his hair sticking up from sleep.

"What did you find?"

The team straightened up, clearly on alert.

Sia pointed at the screen. "We figured out who our intruders are."

Leo took his time walking closer, his eyes scanning the details on the screen like someone used to dealing with tricky information.

He nodded at the first file. "Henry. That makes sense."

Then he looked at the second. "James. That’s not surprising either."

Finally, he got to the third. No name. No file. No trace. Just the faint hint of someone who had been completely erased.

Leo glanced at the page once. Twice. His hands slipped into his pockets, and he straightened slightly, a barely noticeable change.

Mateo spoke quietly. "This third person... they’re a ghost."

Sia chimed in, "And whoever wiped their identity did an amazing job. No one outside the top intelligence circles would be able to erase someone this thoroughly."

Leo took a deep breath. "Show me the fingerprint."

Sia enlarged it on the screen.

Leo was staring hard. Something shifted in his eyes—so tiny that no one else would ever notice, but enough for him to feel it thumping in his chest.

He recognized the pattern. Those ridges. He had seen them before, on a girl lying pale on Zayden’s bed. Her forehead was bandaged, her pulse was weak, and she was breathing softly.

The girl whose fingers he had held the night Zayden rescued her. He had memorized her unique fingerprint pattern without realizing it because he always paid attention to everything.

Zeynep.

The ghost fingerprint... was definitely hers. And he got that she was hiding something from them. His heartbeat slowed down to a tense calm.

So it’s her...

Zeynep’s identity wasn’t just hidden; it was completely wiped away. Someone powerful was determined to erase her from existence, or maybe she didn’t want anyone to find her on purpose.

The implications hit him hard:

If the intruders were after her...

If her identity was gone...

If she passed out just after an intruder showed up...

If she were living on her own...

If she could hack things easily...

Then she wasn’t just some normal girl running away. She was running from something major. Something really dangerous. Something she never meant to pull Zayden into, or maybe she was sent to find him.

Sia glanced at him. "So? What do you think this means?"

Leo kept his expression steady, the perfect unreadable face.

"Nothing," he said smoothly. "It means the intruder is someone we haven’t dealt with yet."

"Someone erased?"

"Yeah."

Peter frowned. "So this unknown person might be an even bigger threat than the other two?"

Leo didn’t blink. "Could be."

Sia folded her arms, looking serious. "Are we seriously thinking about starting a big search for people who’ve had their identities wiped?"

Leo shook his head right away. "Nope, not yet. I’ll let you know when it’s time. First, I need to chat with Z."

He turned to leave the lab, confidently saying, "Just hold onto the scan results. I’ll check them out later."

As soon as he walked out into the hallway, he felt the tension building. He leaned back against the wall and let out a long, slow breath, trying to shake it off.

His mind was racing with a million questions:

Who took her identity away?

What’s chasing her?

Why isn’t she talking about it?

Is she a threat to the people around her?

Or is she the one in trouble?

He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling the weight of it all.

He said to himself, "Zayden... man, you have no idea what you just brought into your home."

She was on the run from something really big. Something dangerous. Someone powerful clearly wanted to keep her secrets hidden. And Zayden was totally clueless.